This thesis explores how organisations manage new product development (NPD) focused innovation across a portfolio of core, adjacent and breakthrough environments. The study focuses on the search and select phases of the innovation process, and how incumbents identify and validate a range of opportunities. Organisations face the paradox of how to establish search and select routines for focal markets, while also setting up routines to sense and respond to disruptive innovation signals from adjacent and more peripheral environments. The study builds on research into peripheral vision, and considers how organisations operationalise innovation search and select in disrupting environments. To analyse how organisations manage search and select in turbulent environments, the author conducted research in the disrupting higher education (HE) publishing industry using qualitative research methods. The study focused on ten case companies, and the researcher conducted 61 interviews with 63 individuals over a six month period across ten companies publishing 9,000 out of the world’s 32,000 academic journals. The interviewees ranged from CEOs and CTOs to production, operations, editorial, publishing, sales and marketing directors and managers. The analysis revealed 11 search and select capabilities that need to be in place to manage NPD effectively in HE publishing. The research identified five contextual factors that influence how search and select is operationalised in disrupting environments. A framework is proposed to enable the mapping of individual opportunities within a wider NPD portfolio. The project identified ten key market insight areas where firms in the HE publishing sector need to focus. The findings have implications for practice, especially for HE publishers, online media companies, and business to business service organisations. Further research is proposed into how the cognitive frames of boards and senior teams affect the structure and operationalisation of NPD portfolios; how visual media companies search for, develop (ideate) and select programme and film projects in the disrupting media sector; and how workflow mapping and the identification of jobs-to-be-done is deployed within the NPD process in different settings.

Yes / When a target is flanked by distractors, it becomes more difficult to identify. In the periphery, this crowding effect extends over a wide range of target-flanker separations, called the spatial extent of interaction (EoI). A recent study showed that the EoI dramatically increases in size for short presentation durations (Chung & Mansfield, 2009). Here we investigate this duration-EoI relation in greater detail and show that (a) it holds even when visibility of the unflanked target is equated for different durations, (b) the function saturates for durations shorter than 30 to 80 ms, and (c) the largest EoIs represent a critical spacing greater than 50% of eccentricity. We also investigated the effect of same or different polarity for targets and flankers across different presentation durations. We found that EoIs for target and flankers having opposite polarity (one white, the other black) show the same temporal pattern as for same polarity stimuli, but are smaller at all durations by 29% to 44%. The observed saturation of the EoI for shortduration stimuli suggests that crowding follows the locus of temporal integration. Overall, the results constrain theories that map crowding zones to fixed spatial extents or to lateral connections of fixed length in the cortex. / This study was supported by the ERC POSITION 324070 (PC) and a visiting professorship to Anglia Ruskin University from the Leverhulme Trust (HEB).

Much about visual spatial attention has been learned from studying how observers respond to two-dimensional stimuli. Less is known about how attention varies along the depth axis. Most of the work on the effect of depth on spatial attention manipulated binocular disparity defined depth, and it is less clear how monocular depth cues affect spatial attention. This thesis investigates the effect of target distance on peripheral detection in a virtual three-dimensional environment that simulated distance using pictorial and motion cues. Participants followed a lead car at a constant distance actively or passively, while travelling along a straight trajectory. The horizontal distribution of attention was measured using a peripheral target detection task. Both car-following and peripheral detection were tested alone under focussed attention, and simultaneously under divided attention. Chapter 2 evaluated the effect of target distance and eccentricity on peripheral detection. Experiment 1 found an overall near advantage that increased at larger eccentricities. Experiment 2 examined the effect of anticipation on target detection and found that equating anticipation across distances drastically reduced the effect of distance in reaction time, but did not affect accuracy. Experiments 3 and 4 examined the relative contributions of pictorial cues on the effect of target distance and found that the background texture that surrounded the targets could explain the main effect of distance but could not fully account for the interaction between distance and eccentricity. Chapter 3 extended the findings of Chapter 2 and found that the effect of distance on peripheral detection in our conditions was non-monotonic and did not depend on fixation distance. Across chapters, dividing attention between the central car-following and peripheral target detection tasks consistently resulted in costs for car-following, but not for peripheral detection. This work has implications for understanding spatial attention and design of advanced driver assistance systems. / Dissertation / Doctor of Science (PhD) / Our visual world is complex and dynamic, and spatial attention enables us to focus on certain relevant locations of our world. However, much of what we know about spatial attention has been studied in the context of a two-dimensional plane, and less is known about how it varies in the third dimension: depth. This thesis aims to better understand how spatial attention is affected by depth in a virtual three-dimensional environment, particularly in a driving context. Generally, driving was simulated using a car-following task, spatial attention was measured in a task that required detecting targets appearing at different depths indicated by cues perceivable with one eye. The results of this work add to the literature that suggests that spatial attention is affected by depth and contributes to our understanding of how attention may be allocated in space. Additionally, this thesis may have implications for the design of in-car warning systems.

No description available.

Failing eyesight causes a dramatic change in life. The aim of this project is to help people with large central visual field loss to better utilize their remaining vision. Central visual field loss means that the person has to rely on peripheral vision since the direct vision is lost, often due to a dysfunctional macula. In these cases, a full restoration of vision would require replacement or repair of the damaged retinal tissue, which is not yet possible. Instead, the present study seeks to improve peripheral vision by enhancing the image quality on the remaining functional part of the retina by optical corrections. The off-axis optics of the human eye often suffers from large optical errors, which together with the lower sampling density of the retina explain the limited visual function in the periphery. The dominating aberrations are field curvature and oblique astigmatism, which induce an effective eccentric refractive error. However, the irregular character of the aberrations and the limited neural function in the periphery will make it difficult to find the optimal refractive correction; the conventional subjective refraction, for example, is not suitable for subjects with large central visual field loss. Within the work of this thesis a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor has been constructed for oblique aberration measurements. Wavefront sensing is an objective method to assess detailed information about the optical errors in the human eye. Theory and methods have been developed to allow accurate off-axis measurements of the large aberrations, enable eccentric fixation, and handle the elliptical pupil. The study has mainly concentrated on sphero-cylindrical correction of peripheral vision. Peripheral resolution and detection acuity thresholds have been evaluated for seven subjects with central visual field loss and ten control subjects with normal vision. Five of the subjects with field loss showed improved resolution acuity with eccentric refractive correction compared to their habitual central correction, whereas little change was found for the control subjects. These results demonstrate that correction of peripheral optical errors can be beneficial to people with large central visual field loss in situations where a normal healthy eye does not experience any improvements. In conclusion, it is worthwhile to investigate the peripheral refractive errors in low-vision rehabilitation of central visual field loss and prescribe spectacle correction when those errors are large. / QC 20100809

This thesis presents two studies that investigate how vision is used to control rapid, compensatory reach-to-grasp reactions. Compensatory grasping reactions were evoked in healthy young adults via unpredictable translations of large platforms on which the subjects stood or walked. The first study tracked natural gaze behaviour during responses to unexpected balance perturbations. It provided evidence that, unlike with voluntary movements, the eyes do not lead the hand during balance recovery – subjects relied on ‘stored’ information from central vision, continuously-available peripheral vision, or a combination of these sources to guide the hand. The second study investigated the efficacy of reliance on peripheral vision to guide rapid reach-to-grasp balance-recovery reactions. Peripheral vision was found to guide reach-to-grasp responses with sufficient accuracy to achieve a functional grasp of a relatively small handhold; however, peripherally-guided movements were slower when the handhold was in the extreme periphery.

This thesis presents two studies that investigate how vision is used to control rapid, compensatory reach-to-grasp reactions. Compensatory grasping reactions were evoked in healthy young adults via unpredictable translations of large platforms on which the subjects stood or walked. The first study tracked natural gaze behaviour during responses to unexpected balance perturbations. It provided evidence that, unlike with voluntary movements, the eyes do not lead the hand during balance recovery – subjects relied on ‘stored’ information from central vision, continuously-available peripheral vision, or a combination of these sources to guide the hand. The second study investigated the efficacy of reliance on peripheral vision to guide rapid reach-to-grasp balance-recovery reactions. Peripheral vision was found to guide reach-to-grasp responses with sufficient accuracy to achieve a functional grasp of a relatively small handhold; however, peripherally-guided movements were slower when the handhold was in the extreme periphery.

no / In normal vision, detecting a kink (a change in orientation) in a line is scale invariant: it depends solely on the length/width ratio of the line (D. Whitaker, D. M. Levi, & G. J. Kennedy, 2008). Here we measure detection of a change in the orientation of lines of different length and blur and show that strabismic amblyopia is qualitatively different from normal foveal vision, in that: 1) stimulus blur has little effect on performance in the amblyopic eye, and 2) integration of orientation information follows a different rule. In normal foveal vision, performance improves in proportion to the square root of the ratio of line length to blur (L: B). In strabismic amblyopia improvement is proportional to line length. Our results are consistent with a substantial degree of internal neural blur in first-order cortical filters. This internal blur results in a loss of scale invariance in the amblyopic visual system. Peripheral vision also shows much less effect of stimulus blur and a failure of scale invariance, similar to the central vision of strabismic amblyopes. Our results suggest that both peripheral vision and strabismic amblyopia share a common bottleneck in having a truncated range of spatial mechanisms-a range that becomes more restricted with increasing eccentricity and depth of amblyopia. / Leverhulme Trust, Wellcome Trust, NIH

No description available.

This research is about evaluating vision in the periphery. Peripheral vision is of fundamental importance in the performance of our everyday activities. The aim of this thesis is to develop methods suitable for the evaluation of peripheral vision and to assess how different visual functions vary across the visual field. The results have application both within the field of visual rehabilitation of people with central visual field loss (CFL)and as well as in myopia research. All methods for assessing peripheral vision were implemented with adaptive psychophysical algorithms based on Bayesian statistics. A routine for time-efficient evaluation of peripheral contrast sensitivity was implemented and verified for measurements out to 30° in the visual field. Peripheral vision was evaluated for different properties of the stimuli: sharpness, motion, orientation, and extent. Optical quality was controlled using adaptive optics and/or corrective spectacles specially adapted for the peripheral viewing angle. We found that many peripheral visual functions improved with optical correction, especially in people with CFL. We also found improvements in peripheral contrast sensitivity for low spatial frequencies when stimuli drifted at 5 to 10 Hz; this applies both for people with normal vision and those with CFL. In the periphery, it is easier to see lines that are oriented parallel with respect to the visual field meridian. We have shown that this directional bias is present for both resolution and detection tasks in the periphery, even when the asymmetric optical errors are minimized. For accurate evaluation of peripheral vision, we therefore recommend using gratings that are oriented oblique to the visual  field meridian. The directional bias may have implications in how peripheral image quality affects myopia progression. Another proof that peripheral vision can influence central visual function is the fact that, when the stimulus extent was increased beyond the fovea, the blur in the stimulus was less noticeable. / Denna forskning handlar om att utvärdera synen i periferin. Vår perifera syn är ovärderlig i det dagliga livet. Målsättningen med denna avhandling är dels att utveckla metoder speciellt lämpade för perifer synutvärdering och dels att mäta hur olika synfunktioner varierar över synfältet. Resultaten har tillämpning både inom synrehabilitering för personer med centraltsynfältsbortfall och inom närsynthetsforskning. Adaptiv psykofysisk metodologi baserad på Bayesiansk statistik användes vid all utvärdering av det perifera seendet. Vi implementerade en rutin för tidseffektiv mätning av perifer kontrastkänslighet och verifierade den ut till 30° i synfältet. Den perifera synen utvärderades för olika egenskaper hos objektet: skärpa, rörelse, riktning och utbredning. Skärpan kontrollerades med hjälp av adaptiv optik och/eller glasögonkorrektion speciellt anpassad för den perifera synvinkeln. Vi fann att många periferasynfunktioner förbättras av optisk korrektion, särskilt för personer med centralt synfältsbortfall. Vi hittade även förbättringar i periferkontrastkänslighet för låga ortsfrekvenser när objektet modulerades med hastigheter mellan 5 och 10 Hz, vilket gäller både normalseende och personer med centralt synfältsbortfall. I periferin är det lättare att se linjer som är orienterade parallellt med synfältsmeridianen. Vi har visat att denna riktningsbias gäller både för upplösning och detektion i periferin, även när de asymmetriska optiska felen minimeras. För bästa mätnoggrannhet rekommenderar vi därför att använda randmönster som ligger snett relativt synfältsmeridianen. Denna riktningsbias skulle även kunna påverka hur den perifera bildkvalitén inverkar på utvecklingen av närsynthet. Ytterligare ett bevis för att perifer syn kan påverka den centrala synfunktionen är att, när objektets utbredning ökades, uppfattade personen det som mindre suddigt. / <p>QC 20160826</p>